The Great Glebe Garage Sale...

[fajrdrako]

Every year my neighbourhood has a massive garage sale. On the morning of the last Saturday in May, half the city descends on the Glebe, and everyone sells off their old junk, and a good time is had by all. Street vendors sell hot dogs and street musicians come and play, and local bands occasionally set up on someone's porch for a concert.

And all this pretty much comes to my doorstep, which suits me just fine.

Yesterday was a horrendously busy day; I never did manage to call commodorified and fairestcat even though they were in my neighbourhood, and I wanted to, and I hope they will forgive me. I did manage a visit with iwasjustsaying and laitosto, which was great.

And I wandered enough to buy the following, mostly at $1 each, some things free, some things $2 or $3 - and one whopping item for $10, and I'm happy about it. Altogether I spent about $40, half of it on comics. Sounds like my life in microcosm. I got:

• eight rubber stamps with Christmas themes



• 20 comics, including a pile of Batman and the JLA Confidential by Warren Ellis, all with 2006 or 2007 cover dates, and in good condition



• a book about flowers and house plants - with good pictures for making greeting cards



• a double boiler, which I've wanted for ages



• a lampshade to replace one in my living room that is stained. Sandi suggested I should use the stain, and paint it artistically. Easy for her to say, when she has an artistic eye! It would look like a mess if I did that, really.



• a green medium-size suitcase with wheels (at $10, this was my big expensive item)



• a glass vase for flowers



• a mounted posted of the cover art of The Lions of Al_Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay. I had an interesting conversation with the woman who sold it to me: she said it wasn't her favourite of his books. I agreed, saying my favourite was Tigana. She said Tigana was her least favourite, her favourite was The Summer Tree. I thought, but didn't say, that The Summer Tree was my least favourite. We agreed that he is a wonderful writer. I later described this conversation to Tasia, and she said her least favourite of Guy Kay's books was A Song for Arbonne. We're not getting much uniformity of fannish opinion here!



• picture frames



• sunglasses and a case to put them in



• two packages of CD holders with pens attached



• Five spice jars with lids.



• a videotape: Basic Yoga For Dummies. I used to have the DVD - twice! - but I traded one copy and gave another copy away - I think it's the best of the yoga recordings I've seen for a good, basic, useful yoga programme.



• shelving

Now, half the fun is buying neat stuff you wouldn't find (or want to pay for) in a store; the other half of the fun is seeing the old things the neighbours don't want any more. I saw a vast number of Joan Collins novels, and old computer keyboards and monitors, and stuffed toys, and exercise equipment, and CDs, though never music I was looking for. Operas and show tunes don't tend to get sold in yard sales.